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[Role Playing Game] Survive: Radroris

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SurviveRadrorisBanner1.png


Greetings Hive,

SkeletonAttack.gif

Current status: Alpha Development
Elaboration: Most framework is complete, substantial amount of unfinished content with a significant number of bugs. ~90% optimized for performance.


An 8-player, third-person perspective, PVP & PVE survival ORPG. During your time in Radroris, you will fight against hordes of the unholy, vicious natives, ferocious wild beasts with unique AI, and of course other players. Choose your class from three options (Builder, Hunter, Scientist) and further choose your subclass specialty. After choosing your survivor, you will be thrust into the wilderness of Radroris, barely clothed and ready to fight for your fate; whether it's to be eaten by sabre cats or grow to become Radroris' TOP predator.

*anything and everything in this thread is potentially subject to change as development continues*

Features & Content Preview:
  • 88+ custom items (materials, consumables, attachable weapons and armor)
  • Many custom abilities
  • 17 different wild beasts with unique AI (not including aquatic creatures encountered by fishing)
  • 256x256 Map Size
  • Dynamic weather
  • Survival mechanics (Hunger, Thirst, and Comfort)
  • Crafting and Smelting Systems
  • Third Person Perspective camera system (modified from The_Flood's system)
  • Survivor Save/Load System (does not reference local files, string entry system designed from scratch. Works very well, but is vulnerable to exploits in its current state)
  • A backpack system, which has replaced the transfer-to-storage mechanic. Storage crates are still in the game.
  • Building options for walls, doors, campfires, and other buildables.
  • An intense night-time experience
  • A 1-60 leveling system that includes attribute point choices and subclass choices, providing customization options.
  • Two completely original background music tracks composed for Survive: Radroris.
Development To-Do List:

  • Ongoing optimization, balancing and bug-squashing, of course.
  • Expand AI and capabilities of NPCs in general.
  • Polish object tooltips, etc. to remove any errors. Dial in object properties (collision, move speed, etc.) over time to the appropriate levels.
  • Expand content for items, craftable items, and item drops to provide an interesting selection of viable gear for all class and subclasses.
  • Expand on environmental ambiance and atmosphere.Continue to polish/adjust terraining and pathing. (Complete) except for Pathing (which comes last, as I intend to use HiveWE's experimental pathing tools)
  • Complete dynamic weather system and eventually normalize it (currently have snow, rain/thunder storm, and windy). (Complete)
  • Optimize and implement gradual fog increasers/decreasers into weather cycle. (Complete)
  • Design Native boss with a growth system.
  • Design Unholy boss and implement into existing flow appropriately.
  • Design tasks and content for max level Survivors (such as feats, special quests, etc. that provide additional attribute points, special gear, and maybe even bonus subclass points).
  • Design a "birds eye" camera system or design a mechanic that allows players to change their camera distance. (Complete)
  • Design a feature that allows a player to change their Survivor's name. (Complete)
  • Expand comfort level reactions to more situations to provide a more thorough survival experience. (Complete)
  • Design and implement optional tasks (like quests) that serve the purpose of providing different experiences and choices without dictating how a player should play the game. Most of these events will not include instruction hand-outs; the goal is to provide many things to DISCOVER simply by doing different things to interact with the map.
  • Design, update, and polish any artwork such as splash screen, map preview, music tracks and sound effects, etc.
My development update posts will be a bit scarce for a while, the reason being that I am overhauling a lot of older content (terrain included, ofc). Much of the recently designed content is at a level of quality which greatly surpasses a lot of the "older" content that I designed before learning many new skills along the way. Can't have that, can we? So I'll be devoting the majority of my time in WE doing this rather than expanding new content at this time.

Examples of what I mean:

-Overhauled dynamic weather system and added a third weather configuration. Each configuration implements two forms of weather, one covering the snowy/autumn areas and the second covering the lush forest areas.
-Made Adjustments to Weather.slk to fine tune particle systems. Previously, the wind weather would block out most view of the skybox, heavy rain and heavy snow are much.. heavier.. now, etc.
-After making further adjustments with the mock HDR lighting, I was lead to pursue custom day/night models (thanks Wark) instead. Thus, I have disabled all mock HDR lighting filters and implemented a customized day/night lighting model. With this came some changes regarding some doodad and destructible models.
-With the change from ambient+mock HDR to directional lighting, I overhauled my previously made gradual fog system and implemented it into the weather system, as well as the day/night system. Fog will now gradually change in volume and color depending on the weather and time of day.
-Randomized the weather cycle influenced by different probabilities for weather configurations.
-Fixed bugs causing thunder & lightning sound effects to play more times than intended (and to more units than intended).
-Fine tuned lightning strike effects and added a mild omnilight, still tampering with it.
-Fresh water puddles spawned during rainy weather can no longer spawn in the river. lol
-Further optimized some parts of the Unholy spawning system as well as the system that destroys them at sunrise.
-Overhauled all Warlock abilities (Hell Lightning & Translocate combo, plus the Demon Portal) making them completely MUI and much more responsive regarding when and why the AI chooses to cast them.
-Changed model of the Warlock enemy. The previous model seemed to cause clipping issues and other more bizarre effects.
-Replaced/adjusted all 3 Survivor models.
-Designed a combat ability for the Skeleton Brute enemy, making it more threatening at melee range.
-Designed a feature that allows players to adjust their rendering distance.
-Redesigned many subclass abilities.
-Overall unit & ability balancing.
-Added omnilights to fires and furnaces.
-Re-textured grass models and designed additional "flowery grass" textures.
-Added cloud models and implemented a system that changes their coloring depending on the weather.
-Expanded Comfort mechanic to include more fluctuation in level depending on hunger and thirst.
-Comfort levels now have more impact regarding HP regeneration and deterioration.
-Designed an Affliction system with two afflictions (Fungal Disease & Frostbite) and more to come. This will add more feeling to overcoming a harsh environment. Survivors are more likely to succumb to afflictions when they have a poor comfort level in combination with their actions, location and the current weather.
-Added Fireflies that sometimes spawn in the forest areas during night time.
-Designed a backpack system to replace the storage transfer system that expands the total usable inventory slots to 12. This helps players to not only carry additional items but protect certain items they own (to an extent). As it stands, armor and weapons do not drop upon death, but ALL consumable and material items do (IF they are in your Survivor inventory). To the contrary; for items that players store in their backpacks, a random item slot will be picked upon death and the picked item will be dropped on the ground, regardless of the item type.
-Designed a dialog menu system that allows players to open/close their backpacks, adjust camera and graphical settings, view helpful information & tips, and more, without entering chat commands. The menu is toggled by the ESC key.
-Completely overhauled the Native AI and building system. Designed and implemented an individual unit growth system that allows individual Native units to increase their strength by training on training dummies and slaying enemy units throughout the course of their lifespan. Natives will behave largely different during nighttime events as opposed to daytime behavior.
-Optimized most item-character related systems and much more.



--------CREDITS--------
All credits for resources used (or anything else that may warrant crediting) will be listed here before a Beta release. As development continues, resources will certainly be added, removed, and/or replaced along the way, thus making it a bit senseless to list at this time. If you have identified a resource of yours in any of this material, and wish to be credited right away, please directly message my inbox and I will amend the list after seeing your request.

Additional Thoughts:

Thank you for reading. If you have any ideas, criticism, comments, or anything you'd like to say or discuss, I'd like to see your comments!

This project has been a learning experience for me, I do not have strict expectations for it, the purpose of this thread is to share, track development, and discuss. Although I do hope players will find entertainment with this map down the line, my main goal is essentially what's stated above.

There is not a map file attached to this thread at this time. However, as stated, there will be a Beta version posted in the future but only when it's ready for that. With that said, I shall put together some screenshots and whatnot to offer a glimpse for those who find interest.

Email: [email protected]


 
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Level 4
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Reserved for Terrain & Weather update. Coming soon!

Here's some previews:

Radroris_Rainbow_Sunset.png Radroris_Nighttime_Forest.png Radroris_Dead_Grassy_Nighttime.png Radroris_Native_Unholy.png

120 sec segment condensed to 40 sec @ 3x speed and 7 fps:
WeatherPrev1gif.gif
 
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Level 14
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Good luck with the project!
It's interesting to see a survival ORPG without save (if I got that right). Can't wait to see how it plays :)
I think you should do as you said - the better equipment you have, the easier and faster you can catch fishes. However this would take more work.
 
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I am brainstorming for a fishing mechanic. This is a channel-based ability that the Fishing Boat unit can cast. Presently, the ability will channel for 10 sec and cannot be interrupted once channeled. A fishing bobber/lure is placed in the water at the target area that remains for the duration of the channel.

I have a plan for triggering it, but I'm open to suggestions and would appreciate any thoughts from anyone who may have interest.

I plan to use dummy units or temp points as "hot spots" throughout the river that change location often.

On a strictly mechanical side, a smooth (or good for lazy people) fishing system or harvesting system in general is the one that allows you to just right click the resource (for those that have the tools), ie. fishing spot, instead of clicking on the tool or ability, just to then click on the resource.
Maybe i'm just obsessed with this, but i also never saw a map that uses this approach that can be done so easily with an invisible Channel (the ability not the mechanic) ability.
 
Level 4
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Good luck with the project!
It's interesting to see a survival ORPG without save (if I got that right). Can't wait to see how it plays :)
I think you should do as you said - the better equipment you have, the easier and faster you can catch fishes. However this would take more work.

Hey Wareditor, thanks for your post! This actually does have a save/load system currently. It functions perfectly with the exception of vulnerability to exploitation (also does not bode well if the code contains any typos lol). It has a very straight-forward, single layer encryption and does not reference any local files; string-based. I plan to show serious attention to this before a beta release to secure it as much as possible.

Regarding fishing, check out my below reply to disruptive_. I agree with your suggestion, however; at this time I am not planning to make fishing available to Survivors without a fishing boat. So the success of fishing will be based on player effort while in a fishing boat, just not the player stats or inventory.

On a strictly mechanical side, a smooth (or good for lazy people) fishing system or harvesting system in general is the one that allows you to just right click the resource (for those that have the tools), ie. fishing spot, instead of clicking on the tool or ability, just to then click on the resource.
Maybe i'm just obsessed with this, but i also never saw a map that uses this approach that can be done so easily with an invisible Channel (the ability not the mechanic) ability.

I see your point. The extra ability click adds nothing to the game, presently. The ideology around the fishing design is to provide risk/reward factors (luck), skill, and effort. For these reasons, I'd like to utilize a targeting area. For example, players should be able to catch fish here & there without casting into a hot spot, just with a much lower probability of an encounter. The hot spots will be subtle in design, meaning players will have to search for and identify them, and different hot spots in different regions should provide encounters for different species of fish, based on where the hot spot is located (rainforest, grasslands, snowy mountains).

Ideally, I'd like the fishing mechanic to work on both naturally occurring fish, and fish that are lured into existence by the presence of the bobber and lure (this provides suspense, as you may end up baiting out a deadly, ship-wrecking sea monster... or a harmless slimehead). I'm confident that I can design aggressive AI to put up a good fight for fish that are caught on the line, and there needs to be risk/reward factors and an overall challenge. Hypothetically... a monster-sized fish equipped with razor sharp teeth can be attracted to the lure, but by nature is too difficult to actually catch on a hook & line. The fish then attacks the boat, rapidly changing its position & angle of attack, and can also choose to flee in certain situations. This provides the challenge of not only aiming the net/harpoon at the target, but chasing it down if it attempts to flee, surviving the assault on your boat, etc. I could even add speed boost abilities to the boats ex. "Adjust Sails Windward".

I'm hoping this will turn out well, I know it seems a little unpractical (maybe even obtuse) but I'm really aiming for serious immersion in all aspects of the game and willing to take all the time & effort to get the job dunnnn. I really appreciate your feedback and would love to hear more thoughts. I've definitely been pushing my limits with this project, and I plan to remain forever humble as I know there's many things I can learn to improve the quality of design.

Fishing Update: 9-8-18 ---- The system is complete and a satisfying number of aquatic creatures have been designed, each with their own variations of behavior and abilities. There are no bugs that I am aware of, awaiting multi-player testing to know more. Item rewards for fish kills are still in development.

-Hot spots have been designed; 5 invisible hot spots total that change their location at random. There are subtle cues to watch for when looking for hot spots (water splashes, splash sound). Fishing abilities appropriately respond to "hot or not" spot :3, meaning that the triggers efficiently determine whether to fire hot spot encounter or regular encounter depending on where the line is cast.

-Fishing Utilities: Cast Lure, Throw Net, Fire Harpoon. All 3 function properly. It's a three-ish step process. Lure the fish, net the fish to immobilize it (temporarily), then harpoon the fish to secure the kill/catch.

-When a fish is defeated via fishing, reward functions are then triggered. These reward functions determine the type of fish defeated, and provide XP points to your Survivor. Formula is: x + (y * z)
x = flat xp rate for type of fish
y = multiplier for type of fish
z = current level of Survivor

Rates will be adjusted and balanced as needed.

-Most item & consumable rewards will be implemented later, and your fishing boat will have an inventory to hold them. Currently, Tough Fish Meat can be obtained via fishing. Still getting a feel for the fishing items, and I'm holding off a bit until I polish crafting and the current items first.

---Currently, AI design is complete for 10 of the 10 different aquatic creatures that can be encountered by fishing the rivers.

Aquatic Creatures:

  • Bull Fish (Common)
  • Revenant Fish (Common) (Nighttime)
  • Silver Payara (Common)
  • Eagle Ray (Rare)
  • Glacier Turtle (Uncommon)
  • Mossy Croc (Uncommon)
  • Osteus Fish (Rare)
  • Qwollup (Very Rare)
  • Subaqueous Magma Tortoise (Very Rare)
  • Cyclops Ray (Very Rare) (Nighttime)


Previews:
*hot spots have the "!" model during testing so I can find them easily xD*

Subaqueous Magma Tortoise Encounter:
fishinggif3magma.gif


Bull Fish Encounter:
fishinggif1.gif
 
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I put together a quick video preview. This doesn't showcase much, like crafting, creeps, gear, and so on. Just something in better motion. Thinking about increasing the cam distance..

 
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For the selection, you should disable the units pathing so it's less awkward when they come forward.
Other than that, the game looks neat and already polished. I really like the night time mood.

Thanks for your suggestion!

This looks much cleaner now:
charselectpolishedgif.gif


I took the campfire out of the way, I may just remove it from the character selection zones as it looks awkward if it's not center-front. The Survivors no longer do that awkward twitch while standing still when another Survivor is selected.

On a side note.. I implemented a simple feature that allows players to set their camera distance by entering "-camdistance [integer between 800 & 1500]" into the chat. Combined with the existing camera controls, this pretty much allows any possible camera angle within the above distances.
 
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Level 16
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Looks great honestly. I'm going to pull a shameless plug here, but I think it'll be cool to add custom tracks to an RPG such as this. I'll post a link to my thread. I am pretty flexible with sound design, not just composing tracks. If you're interested, drop a comment on the linked thread. I think it would be cool to be apart of a project such as this.

> ItsRyanBoi's [Voice Editing/Producing/Effects] Workshop

Thanks,
RB
 
Level 4
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Looks great honestly. I'm going to pull a shameless plug here, but I think it'll be cool to add custom tracks to an RPG such as this. I'll post a link to my thread. I am pretty flexible with sound design, not just composing tracks. If you're interested, drop a comment on the linked thread. I think it would be cool to be apart of a project such as this.

> ItsRyanBoi's [Voice Editing/Producing/Effects] Workshop

Thanks,
RB

Hey RB, thanks for dropping in with some feedback. That sounds like an awesome idea. There's one issue though, and that is map file size. The two tracks I've composed and added already take up about 1.5mb combined. They've been compressed as much as I know how to without completely destroying the quality. As it stands, the map size is a whopping 7.4mb total. Sadly this leaves very little wiggle room to consider additional music tracks. With that said, I checked out your page and listened to your example track and loved it, so I would like to find an avenue for you to get involved. Plus, I'll be pruning my imports as I continue to develop, space will probably free up. There's a few things I think I can compress a bit more.

There's a little section of Radroris that is divided by boundaries. This is intended to be Radroris' version of "Hell". Under very unfortunate circumstances, players can end up there and will need to fight like hell to get out of hell. I was planning on attempting a short track for this event, as well as some Demonic sound effects, ie. some Demonic spell lines, Demonic screams, etc. If I can manage to find the space to fit these things, would you like to take on the task of designing a short (maybe loopable, seamless) "Hell" track? Along with some Demonic spell lines and horror sounds? I will make a post in your thread once I figure out how to approach this, and how feasible it is. Feel free to reply here though anyway, I certainly don't mind.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If anybody feels interested in being involved in the project, I'd really love to hear about your skill set and how you'd like to be involved. I would also appreciate the helping hands!

Things I'd like to handle mostly solo:
  • Triggers and Scripts
  • Terrain
  • Object Editing (units, items, most spells, etc.)
  • Theme
  • Gameplay Flow
Things I'm not very skilled with:
  • Most Graphic Design (splash, icons, banners, etc.) I can do pixel art though ;)
  • Sound effects (voice lines, spell sound effects, etc.)
  • Advanced Scripting (I mostly work in GUI unless a custom script is absolutely essential to what I'm trying to accomplish)
  • Modeling, Skinning, Animating (not really too much work needed here, there's plenty of wonderful, preexisting Hive resources that fill most gaps needed)
The most I can promise as a result of any work contributed are the proper thanks, appreciation and crediting for your work.

I'm always open to hear ideas and suggestions regarding ANY of the above topics relating to this project.

Thank you!
 
Level 28
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Wow, nice project indeed. Congratulations for having it developed so far as in what you've already got, and good luck with the rest of it.

Hey RB, thanks for dropping in with some feedback. That sounds like an awesome idea. There's one issue though, and that is map file size. The two tracks I've composed and added already take up about 1.5mb combined. They've been compressed as much as I know how to without completely destroying the quality. As it stands, the map size is a whopping 7.4mb total. Sadly this leaves very little wiggle room to consider additional music tracks. With that said, I checked out your page and listened to your example track and loved it, so I would like to find an avenue for you to get involved. Plus, I'll be pruning my imports as I continue to develop, space will probably free up. There's a few things I think I can compress a bit more.
If you're into music making then you must already be familiar with audio compressing, but in any case here is a good tutorial for this which involves taking advantage of Warcraft's audio system. In the tutorial example, the author reduced a track size from 8.02 mb to 800 kb.
 
Level 4
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Wow, nice project indeed. Congratulations for having it developed so far as in what you've already got, and good luck with the rest of it.


If you're into music making then you must already be familiar with audio compressing, but in any case here is a good tutorial for this which involves taking advantage of Warcraft's audio system. In the tutorial example, the author reduced a track size from 8.02 mb to 800 kb.

Thanks for dropping in! I believe this may have been the tutorial I actually followed to compress them the first time xD I'm re-exporting the tracks now and will try again just in case. Thank you for the tutorial link.

-----------

I'm in need of creative suggestions for the Scientist's second subclass. This is the only subclass missing among the 3 classes. The Scientist's first subclass is a Self-Enhancement specialty. You know those freak lab scientists in the movies that like to try to enhance themselves biologically? It's themed a bit like that. Less caster, more of a melee dps, heavily dependent on gear, little-to-no CC but high DPS burst potential and mobility.

I've toyed with "Master Chemist" as the second subclass, but have decided against it. Part of the building/crafting of the Scientist class already includes Chemistry-themed stuff, so that will be a part of playing as a Scientist regardless of subclass. Additionally, a "healer" subclass is not something I'd currently consider an option as there will be no alliances with other players via in-game mechanics, leaving a healer subclass to self-heal 99% of the time (boring and inferior).

What could the second subclass then be? For a game like this, the creative stretch limit is summed up as: make "imaginable logical sense". Does not have to be considered logically sound in comparison to the real world, but must have some logic behind it relevant to the game world and theme. With fantasy being part of the overall theme, it's not outlandish to consider certain technologies and so on provided they appeal to the game's fantasy theme. For example; robotic contraptions can fit the theme. A Mercedes Benz parked somewhere on the map does not. Needless to say probably, but I like analogies.

If anybody has an idea, drop some lines! Thanks :aw:
 
Level 13
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I agree with Wareditor. An engineer makes sense.
You could take a page from the Guild Wars version of an engineer, with steampunk-crazy contraptions and gadgets.

Some things that come to mind:
- Rocket Boots: area damage at the start location, launch self forward X distance.
- Rifle Turret: a gun version of Serpent Ward, basically. Clunky auto-target machine with X% chance to explode while attacking.
- Land Mine: area targeted invisible stun trap that activates after a time. Easy combination of Stasis Trap + Goblin Land Mines, but adjust the damage or have many variants for increasing levels.
- Acid Bomb or Molotov Cocktail (fire version of the same thing?) that slows movement speed and does damage over time. Medium ranged thrown bomb-type spell that can hit you if you're too close.
- Quaff Remedy: Self-healing potion with an additional random effect (remove debuffs, increase movement speed, shrink, enlarge, turn invisible?)

For a weapon?
I'd say Blunderbus or flintlock pistol. Something medium-ranged and slow.
Definitely make it an intel-type hero that isn't really the best at one thing, but can do some of everything.
 
Level 8
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Scientist role could break unto 2 subclasses:
1. Your classic and predictable engineering dude (see Wark ideas), with lots of gadgets, etc.
2. A bio scientist that focuses on enhancing (also "degrading" enemy ones) organic units, primarily himself.
Since it's a survival FFA game, i'm thinking that a base ability of the bio scientist could be a "genetic" (this is the theme) gathering ability so to
allow to fuse/clone/create an organic unit (and then proceed to enhance it), ie. a de facto Collect DNA skill (the scientist gathers some genetic material from a living unit; the material could be just an item) plus another ability that allows to manipulate such specific items.
In regards of the skill that manipulates the DNA i would do the following:
- The ability is targeted, and targets DNA items exclusively (basically has no effect over other items).
- When the ability is casted on an eligible item, the first DNA (the item that starts all) is consumed and the genetic experiment starts and lasts X seconds.
- During this time the caster must continiously use and consume DNA items (retargeting the ability each time), so to increase the potency of the experiment.
- When the experiment timer ends, actions are executed (a unit is summoned basically).
- Maybe add a chance so the experiment fails, allowing for some specific scientist stats, ie. experiment success %, and overall more complexity.
The sludge monster creep is an excellent placeholder for this ("look what you've done").
- Maybe add a pseudo fusion system, with multiple DNA types, ie. bear/deer/human/lizardguy DNA, allowing the player to kind of choose the
summon they will bring (previosly i was just thinking on a random summon with increased stats based on the amount of items used).
 
Level 4
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Maybe an engineer that builds robots, mini tanks and other fancy useful gadgets ?

I agree with Wareditor. An engineer makes sense.
You could take a page from the Guild Wars version of an engineer, with steampunk-crazy contraptions and gadgets.

Some things that come to mind:
- Rocket Boots: area damage at the start location, launch self forward X distance.
- Rifle Turret: a gun version of Serpent Ward, basically. Clunky auto-target machine with X% chance to explode while attacking.
- Land Mine: area targeted invisible stun trap that activates after a time. Easy combination of Stasis Trap + Goblin Land Mines, but adjust the damage or have many variants for increasing levels.
- Acid Bomb or Molotov Cocktail (fire version of the same thing?) that slows movement speed and does damage over time. Medium ranged thrown bomb-type spell that can hit you if you're too close.
- Quaff Remedy: Self-healing potion with an additional random effect (remove debuffs, increase movement speed, shrink, enlarge, turn invisible?)

For a weapon?
I'd say Blunderbus or flintlock pistol. Something medium-ranged and slow.
Definitely make it an intel-type hero that isn't really the best at one thing, but can do some of everything.

Oops.. I left something out of my previous post that was quite vital.

The Builder class has the subclass of "Mechanical Engineer". I battled with whether this should be under Scientist or Builder for quite some time. I'm very sorry that this was not included in the previous post!

Classes & Subclasses To-Date

  • Hunter
    • Ranger
    • Prowler
  • Builder
    • Mason
    • Engineer
  • Scientist
    • Biochemist
    • Gadgeteer

About the Mechanical Engineer

The Mechanical Engineer makes use of explosives, turrets, and other mechanical deployments. The Ultimate ability for this subclass constructs a companion that I've named "Mostly-Useful Helper Bot 3000". This contraption has no duration timer, and is able to switch between two behavioral modes: Protect and Harvest. While in Protect Mode, the bot will follow and hastily defend its owner via basic attacks and cluster bombs. While in Harvest Mode, the bot will chop trees within a radius around its owner and return the resources periodically until ordered otherwise. The Helper Bot 3000 also has an ability that rapidly discharges its stored electrical energy at a target area, dealing massive damage over a few seconds but destroying the Helper Bot afterwards. It once was that the bot would occasionally turn against and attack its owner after being issued an order, but this mechanic has been disabled for now.

All Subclasses are still actively being worked on. Some abilities will be removed, added and replaced with higher-quality abilities with more depth (and stat-dmg scaling).

All classes are primarily melee, although each class can, in some way or another, acquire ranged weapons (Bows, Flintlock Rifle, etc.).

@Wark Thanks for commenting your ideas. They are sound ideas, and many of what you listed is actually already in the game somewhere XD. There is a Flintlock Rifle that can be acquired via a mysterious NPC that roams the map. I'm very likely to put your "Rocket Boots" idea to use!

@disruptive_ I was hoping you'd stop back in ;). Very interesting ideas, seems I have a lot to think about. This would be a very cool, dynamic system to add depth to the class. About using items though, I'm aiming to refrain from adding more categories of items to carry. I'm using the default inventory system with a storage, and transfer-to-storage mechanic. However storing the unit data for collected DNA in arrays, then firing corresponding effects, is not out of the question at all.

Thank you for the great responses and suggestions!
 
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Level 13
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The Builder class has the subclass of "Mechanical Engineer". I battled with whether this should be under Scientist or Builder for quite some time.
  • Hunter
    • Ranger
    • Prowler
  • Builder
    • Mason
    • Mechanical Engineer
  • Scientist
    • Bio-Enhancement Engineer
    • ____________

I've got it then:
just name the Builder subclass "Engineer" (no need for 2 word classes, sounds clunky) and make the Scientist subclasses be something like "Biologist," Chemist" or "Biochemist," and have the other subclass be "Cyborg" or "Gadgeteer."
It'll definitely fit the rocket boots idea, and think of it this way: Biochemist enhances itself chemically, where Gadgeteer enhances itself mechanically.
You could have all sorts of gadgets for that (Inspector Gadget comes to mind) from towlines to pull targets/self to a location, to rocket punches.
 
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I've got it then:
just name the Builder subclass "Engineer" (no need for 2 word classes, sounds clunky) and make the Scientist subclasses be something like "Biologist," Chemist" or "Biochemist," and have the other subclass be "Cyborg" or "Gadgeteer."
It'll definitely fit the rocket boots idea, and think of it this way: Biochemist enhances itself chemically, where Gadgeteer enhances itself mechanically.
You could have all sorts of gadgets for that (Inspector Gadget comes to mind) from towlines to pull targets/self to a location, to rocket punches.

Thank you for the great suggestion. This will work with a little bit of wiggling.

I will adjust the Builder Engineer style to specialize in building contraptions and pyrotechnics and I will design the Scientist "Gadgeteer" style with the above in mind. Since the Biochemist subclass specializes in mobility & close range, high-burst DPS with little to no CC, the "Gadgeteer" will be the counterpart. In comparison to Biochemist: Less burst DPS and mobility, more CC and ranged capabilities, plus sustainability/healing unique to the subclass.

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Here's some more previews :D

Cam Distance Adjustment:
camdistancegif.gif


Blood Mites:
bloodmitesgif.gif


The Blood Mite is a highly active and aggressive social insect. The mites operate in coordination with one another to hunt, colonize, and defend their nests. Individually, the Blood Mite is not very threatening. However; if left alone to build nests, reproduce and colonize more territory, their numbers grow overwhelmingly, upping their rank on the "Don't Fk with Me" scale.
 
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Would anyone like to chime in with more brainstorming?

Regarding the Unholy and the night time content.

Unholy Units:
  • Skeleton - Basic seek & destroy melee enemy.
  • Skeleton Brute - Seek & destroy melee enemy, a bit tougher than a regular Skeleton. Will have some combat abilities.
  • Demon - Seek & destroy with combat spells and effects. Tough, high-ranking opponent.
  • Warlock - Wanders slowly. Has 3 spells, all very powerful in combat.
These enemies spawn on the map beginning as soon as night time arrives. When the sun rises, they begin to take regular damage until vanquished by the light. Spawned amounts are balanced based on player count and level count.

Goals:

-Design an Unholy "King" boss that can enter the map under certain circumstances.
-Design objectives for Demons and Warlocks to work towards during nighttime. These objectives, if completed, should result in an event that summons the Demon King onto the map. Players can get involved to either prevent or enable the summoning to fight the King.
-Design AI and event systems for Natives to gather an army together and fight against the Unholy for objectives (i.e. to prevent them from summoning the Demon King into the world).

Then so on once the summoning is complete.

What do you guys think? Maybe design symbolic demonic runes placed around the map that the Unholy must activate via ritual?

Thanks!

Warlock preview:
warlockgif.gif
 
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Level 13
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I have a recommendation regarding the night and day cycle.
Try this out for night:
  • call SetDayNightModels("","")
Then turn this on during the day:
  • call SetDayNightModels("Environment\\DNC\\DNCLordaeron\\DNCLordaeronTerrain\\DNCLordaeronTerrain.mdx","Environment\\DNC\\DNCLordaeron\\DNCLordaeronUnit\\DNCLordaeronUnit.mdx")
They are custom scripts. I recommend using a "Lighting" doodad or attachment with this. See if you like it.
 
Level 4
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I have a recommendation regarding the night and day cycle.

This is great, I've made my custom unit and terrain models for it and it works properly. The issue I'm having with it is that many of the doodads are unaffected by the lighting (the grass model and some of the trees, etc.), which looks pretty bad. Other trees & doodads like bushes, cattails, rocks, etc. seem to be affected though. Do you happen to know of a solution that doesn't involve editing the .mdx's or replacing the doodad model completely?

Thanks a lot btw. Never knew about this!
 
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Yo, I may have stumbled on how to make certain doodads darken in that no-light environment.
They require a certain field for "shadows" in the doodad tab to be "true."

This doesn't seem to work for me. The only way I have been able to get around it is by replacing the model entirely, for both trees/destructibles and regular doodads. Even when keeping object properties identical, the model change either works and it's affected by lighting or doesn't depending on the model itself. :/ Are you using a non-standard editor?

I think I'll end up attempting my own grass model and textures. For me, the model change for the grass is the largest sacrifice made in order to use the custom day/night model. The replacement that works with the lighting just doesn't look as nice with the camera angle as the other.

If I somehow happen to figure this out on the modeling side of things...... I'll let you know. lol
 
Level 9
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You might want to change the hero's model, I hate that kind of fist-attack animation when he is clearly holding a weapon.

Also are there any intents to add a pet-summon class? Like no need for a swarm of minions, just one creature who will accompany you.
 
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Like no need for a swarm of minions, just one creature who will accompany you.
HMMM.
Gadgeteer gets a "Klaptrap"-like automaton or gyro drone thingy, perhaps?
Or, go all with the usual RPG thing and give the Prowler or Ranger a pet...

Either way, it shouldn't be player controlled, but simply follow the Hero's commands.
 
Level 4
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Thanks for dropping in with some feedback and suggestions.

Currently, the Ranger subclass has an ability "Tame Beast" that is acquired near max lvl. This ability allows you to tame almost any creature in the game, excluding a few obvious exceptions. Additionally, tamed beasts have expanded AI and can also be player controlled, allowing you to command their natural abilities at will.

Taming is more difficult depending on your Survivor's durability plus the type & behavior of the beast being tamed. For example.. Hares can be tamed. They prefer a flight response, but do occasionally show aggressive behavior when threatened. If you're trying to tame the Hare, it may scurry away from you or it may attack you for the duration of the taming channel. If you can withstand the assault for the duration, or the creature does not continuously flee, the creature will become your tamed beast. Each Hunter-Ranger can have one tamed beast at any time. Tamed beasts do not save with your character and once killed cannot be resurrected; you must tame another.

About the model.. This is actually something that's been bugging myself as well, but also thanks for pointing this out. I will look for better suited models.
 
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Level 4
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Messages
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You might want to change the hero's model, I hate that kind of fist-attack animation when he is clearly holding a weapon.

I've made some adjustments, still being finalized:

AttackAnimPreview.gif


All three class models have been removed/replaced.
From left to right, the order is Hunter, Builder, then Scientist.

Know that there are class-specific items that will be occupying the other hand by default: Spears for Hunters, Hammers for Builders, and some other object yet to be named for the Scientist (it's sort of a survival multi-tool gadget thingy currently).

All attack animations for Survivors now resemble some sort of weapon swing motion with either arm (or both). This is indeed more appropriate, seeing how class items (which you will always have) act as melee weapons and you will have some sort of other weapon the majority of in-game time.

Hoping the model changes are a step in the right direction. @nhs325 Thank you for your suggestion. Additionally, per your question about minions/companions, the Builder-Engineer subclass has the ability to construct a robotic companion, serving as a gatherer and protector for its creator.

@deepstrasz
Working on them currently :p Ty

Touched them up a bit to make them look less rough.

Before:
IconPreview.png


After:
IconPreview3.png
 
Last edited:
Level 4
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Yo, I may have stumbled on how to make certain doodads darken in that no-light environment.

Ay. Within Magos' Model Editor, you must navigate to the Material Manager, double-click the material to open a list of layers. Then double-click the name of the material layer to open its properties. Here, you can uncheck "Unshaded" to allow material layers to be shaded by lighting models.

I'm guessing this is technically considered editing the model, so I'll be sure to attempt contacting the o.g. creators of models that I'd like to do this with.

Anyways, hope this helps you with your endeavors as well.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Some News

I'm still working on revamping older content daily. Terrain is ~75% complete, dynamic weather is complete, many bugs have been eliminated and many, many functions and features have been optimized and polished within the last month. I have also been working with class/subclass design quite heavily this last week to ensure that each class/subclass feels unique, fun & challenging. If interested in current development tasks (one's that don't warrant a brand new post yet), please open the Spoiler box within the original thread post titled "Want to know what I'm up to RIGHT NOW?".

Also worth stating, I will be returning to college after being beaten down by the world for 5 years to finish my degree (1 year left to go). Don't worry, development progress will continue as it has been; however, my update posts with this thread will likely become more spaced but larger in content. My goal is to release a Beta version by the end of 2018... but seeing how 1.30 is currently broken and I was planning to go nose-to-grindstone before starting classes, this may be delayed. I'm remaining optimistic but it solely depends on the state of the map when that time comes.
 
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Level 4
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Hey folks,

It's been a little while since some updates. I'm happy to say that steady progress has been made despite the events that are taking place with patch 1.30.xx.

Some updates have been made to the Terrain & Weather post as well as the Fishing post on the first page.

I haven't shared much regarding subclass mechanics, so I put together more gifs (yay moar gifs!) that show some of them in action. I will be posting more soon of the Prowler, Mason, and Biochemist subclasses. Trying to channel most of my free time into developing rather than recording, editing and converting clips to document here.

For now, here's the Hunter Ranger:

1gif.gif
2gif.gif
3gif.gif
 
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Level 9
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521
Why would you summon a hawk while you already got a pet? Like he is also pretty weak from what I have seen.
 
Level 4
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Why would you summon a hawk while you already got a pet? Like he is also pretty weak from what I have seen.

Can you wait until Beta before reporting balancing suggestions? :aw:
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evilsmile.jpg
evilsmile.jpg
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Per your question, I can think of several reasons why and little to zero reasons why not.

The eagle is not player controlled, it has its own AI and flies away after a duration. The eagle's behavior becomes more aggressive towards your enemies based on your agility attribute (to simulate that the more skilled the hunter, the more control he has over his companion).

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Heads up all, two stuffs:

  1. I'm intentionally not detailing everything about the game in this thread. I'm giving you enough to follow my progress, see the development as it grows, and know generally what to expect if you decide to play it when released. It is my hope that if you do play, you'll find it to be more than you expected.
  2. The game will be challenging and require patience. For example, a lvl 15 Survivor with low level gear will likely not be able to kill a pack of wolves unassisted. Hares, otters, snakes, stags, sabres, cobras, mites, etc. are typically examples of what's on the creep menu for that lvl of Survivor.
 
Level 4
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Greetings!

No gifs or previews this post, just some updates.

Still chugging along!!

I'm currently deep within the gears working on expanding AI and nighttime events (how the Natives react with the Unholy, interactive events, bosses). I've reworked just about every triggered system over the course of these last few months, implemented some convenient features such as a backpack and a dialog menu, and made some leaps regarding class abilities as well.

It would seem that once I complete the Fishing, Crafting, and AI/Event portions of the game, and rework a few other systems like save/load... a Beta release will be visible on the horizon and available once I have expanded upon the base content enough to feel that several hours of entertaining play is achievable.

Leaps and bounds people! I sometimes feel as though I cannot contain my excitement for when I get to release this! Not that I think I'm hot shit or anything, but the shear hours put into this feels like a milestone and I can't wait to share the world I have created.


Regarding War3 REFORGED..


My next Survive: ______ project will be done with Reforged resources and editor, most likely. I'm not even thinking about a next project yet with any real depth, my hands are devoted to Radroris. However, I've anticipated a remaster like many others for quite some time now, and the reason why there's a : after "Survive" is because I intend to make more than one. :D So that's something fun to look forward to in the future for me!

As we know, custom maps that work with the current patches should also be compatible with Reforged. Survive: Radroris will be compatible (for the most part... damn sound bugs pl0x fix), however; resources, textures, and so on will remain the classic style. Some aspects may be upgraded depending on level of appropriateness.

Thanks for reading! I'm going to try to post some more substance soon.
 
Level 8
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Messages
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Excellent news, it really seems you have a very clear vision of your end result. I say that because you already picturing your concrete project on the Reforged era. Even on that "era" you are developing your map judging by your comment.
 
Level 4
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Hi!

Progress has slowed down quite a bit due to my workload with schooling. Also worth noting: many disruptive bugs still have not been fixed by Blizzard, leaving me a bit bitter towards WE lately. So I've mostly been taking a break from developing this these last couple of months as I simply just don't have a whole lot of time to devote to it. Part of the circumstance is the type of project this is, being a large-scale, multiplayer, survival ORPG and me being the sole developer... well, it's tough to keep a grasp on the scope of everything unless I have several hours per day to devote.

With that said, I don't want to give off the wrong message. Survive: Radroris is not being abandoned, I'm simply giving up the idea of adhering to any kind of deadline (even if it was just a loose goal) and taking a bit of a breather, and I felt that I owe it to my thread to make this post.

Lastly, I'd like to say that with the little time I've had lately, I've been touching up a couple of my other smaller projects and plan to release 1 or 2 of them soon. :)

As always, I appreciate everyone's feedback and presence in this thread and I will be back full-force when the semester ends for me, so around Spring season.
 
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